University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 9-2012 Organic Farming and Rural Transformations in the European Union: A Political Economy approach Charalampos Konstantinidis University of Massachusetts Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Economics Commons Recommended Citation Konstantinidis, Charalampos, "Organic Farming and Rural Transformations in the European Union: A Political Economy approach" (2012). Open Access Dissertations. 614. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/614 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ORGANIC FARMING AND RURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A POLITICAL ECONOMY APPROACH A Dissertation Presented by CHARALAMPOS KONSTANTINIDIS Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2012 Department of Economics c Copyright by Charalampos Konstantinidis 2012 All Rights Reserved ORGANIC FARMING AND RURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A POLITICAL ECONOMY APPROACH A Dissertation Presented by CHARALAMPOS KONSTANTINIDIS Approved as to style and content by: James K. Boyce, Co-chair Mwangi wa Githinji, Co-chair Krista Harper, Member Michael Ash, Department Chair Department of Economics In the memory of my grandfathers, Charalampos and Stratos ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing a dissertation is usually a long and painful process. However, in my experience, it wasn't always a lonely one. I feel the need to thank the people who made this journey easier (and joyful at times). Co-directed dissertation projects sometimes turn into battlegrounds. I was fortu- nate not to have this experience, while working under Mwangi wa Githinji and Jim Boyce. In my third year I did an independent study on ecological Marxism with Mwangi; at that time, I knew I found a co-chair for my dissertation. Over the years, Mwangi has kept encouraging me to find my own voice, while thinking about the larger picture. His collegiality has been a real lesson for me. Jim Boyce added his vast knowledge on a series of topics, while showing me the power of explaining com- plicated ideas as simply as possible. I thank them both for being great co-chairs. Furthermore, I need to thank Krista Harper for her willingness to step in and work with me at a particular difficult stage of the way, after Julie Graham's passing. Julie, who served as an outside member in the earlier stage of this thesis, showed me that even seemingly minor changes can constitute significant challenges to the way we conduct economic activity and to the way we think about it. I hope she'd be satisfied with the result of the work. Beyond my committee members, I was fortunate to have a series of great teachers at UMass. Michael Ash generously gave me thoughtful comments to a series of drafts and to innumerable presentations at the Environmental Working Group. His enthusiasm and his approach to statistical analysis have been lessons I take with me. Furthermore, Rick Wolff and Steve Resnick's groundbreaking work on Marxism provided me with a suitable language for many of the things that I wanted to write. v Eileen Atallah, Nicole Dunham, Chris Evans, Connie Milne, and Nancy Nash have been the unsung heroes of much of the work that is conducted at UMass. Judy Dietel deserves extraordinary mention for her kindness and her generosity. The Political Economy Research Institute's dissertation fellowship allowed me to leave the US for a semester in order to conduct fieldwork. Furthermore, the hospitality of the Institute for Organic Farming at the Universit¨atf¨urBodenkultur in Vienna, and especially of Christian Vogl, allowed me to learn about Greece by studying Austria. I need to thank a series of people for their friendship, their insights, and their willingness to engage in heated arguments over economics and politics, directly or indirectly related to this thesis: Emir Benli, Rajesh Bhattacharya, Jessica Carrick- Hagenbarth, Michael Carr, Hasan Comert, Geert Dhondt, Lauren Handley, Shaun Lamory, Philip Mellizo, Joseph Rebello, Casey Stevens, Joo Yeoun Suh, Hasan Tekguc, Yorghos Tripodis, and Nikolas Zirogiannis. Andy Barenberg, Amit Basole, Jen Co- hen, and Ian J. Seda-Irizarry deserve special thanks for being true comrades since we all arrived in Amherst in the summer of 2005. On countless occasions, Stefanos Nikolopoulos has shared his insights from his 30-year experience in the Greek countryside and has come to be a major influence in how I think about food and agriculture. Andriana Vlachou has been a true mentor. I consider my work to be drawing from Andriana's in many different ways. Further- more, I would like to thank her for showing me how to be unwavering and relevant, even when working in a hostile environment. Despite the geographical distance, my parents, Georgios Konstantinidis and Maria Fotaki, and my sister, Spyridoula Kon- stantinidi, have always been present for me with their love and their encouragement. Last but not least, I want to thank Leila Davis for her support and her sharp criti- cisms of my work. Leila has encouraged me to seek out the substance in what I write, and not to pull any punches when necessary. I thank her, and I hope I can reciprocate as she is writing her own dissertation. vi ABSTRACT ORGANIC FARMING AND RURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A POLITICAL ECONOMY APPROACH SEPTEMBER 2012 CHARALAMPOS KONSTANTINIDIS B.A, ATHENS UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor James K. Boyce and Professor Mwangi wa Githinji This dissertation investigates the impact of organic farming for achieving the en- vironmental and social objectives of sustainability in Europe over the past 20 years. Organic farming is considered the poster child of rural development in Europe, of- ten seen as a model of the integration of small-scale production with environmental considerations. Since this model runs counter to the logic of developing capitalist structures in agriculture, I revisit the Marxian predictions regarding the \agrarian question". Furthermore, I trace the discursive changes in support of small-scale pro- duction in the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and assess whether small farms have improved their situation under the revised CAP. Subsequently, I use statistical analysis in order to assess the socio-economic and the environmental consequences of the rise in organic farming. Contrary to what is often assumed, organic farms in Europe display larger average sizes and lower rates vii of labor intensity than their conventional counterparts, casting doubts on the efficacy of organic farms to allow family farmers to remain in the countryside as high-value producers. I argue that this this development should be viewed as further evidence of the \conventionalization" of organic farming. In order to explain the process which led to such an outcome, I proceed to explain the different ways through which organic farms could overcome traditional problems which impeded the capitalist development of agriculture. Regarding the environmental implications, I evaluate the rise of organic farming by assessing its impact for different countries' overall pesticide and fertilizer intensity. My results are mixed, with higher organic shares being correlated with decreased application of fertilizer, but less significant results for pesticide intensity. Finally, I present evidence from qualitative work conducted in 2010 in rural Greece which points to the absence of well-established networks among organic producers, and between them and other actors in the chain of distribution. Small producers who switch to organic methods appear unable to reap the benefits from the higher prices and the institutional support for organic farming. Hence, it is larger enterprises which dominate the organic sector. I also examine the role of certification agencies, as a prime recipient of surplus transfers, and question the safeguards of organic en- terprises against recent developments in agricultural labor relations, which are highly exploitative of immigrant labor. viii CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................. v ABSTRACT ......................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES ................................................... xii LIST OF FIGURES.................................................. xiv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................. 1 1.1 A world in crisis . .1 1.2 Organic farming and the reorganization of European agriculture . .4 1.3 Political economy . .5 1.3.1 Individuals and groups . .5 1.3.2 Market . .7 1.4 Chapter outline . 10 2. CAPITALISM AND AGRICULTURE ............................ 13 2.1 Introduction . 13 2.2 Marx .......................................................... 14 2.3 Kautsky . 18 2.4 Lenin . 22 2.5 Luxemburg . 23 2.6 Bukharin and Preobrazhensky . 25 2.7 Chayanov . 26 2.8 Vergopoulos . 27 2.9 Bringing it all together: Theoretical remarks . 31 ix 3. THE EVOLUTION OF EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE ........... 35 3.1 Introduction . 35 3.2 The origins of the